Smallville 8.8

[norwich36]

I really loved this episode, but I haven't gotten a lot of sleep recently, so I'm not sure I'm going to be very articulate in this review.

Things I loved

--Erica Durance rocked the house . What is it about this show, that I love everyone so much more when they get to play evil? I mean, I wouldn't ever want to watch Lois go evil, but Feora (or however you spell it) was fabulous: hot and scary and powerful and the perfect female complement to Zod. Though why Kryptonians are making Nietzschean puns ("that which kills you makes you stronger") I do not know.

--Tess: I loved how fast she picked up on the fact that Lois wasn't really Lois. (That's my interpretation of that scene, and I'm sticking to it, even though the raise she gave Lois seems to contradict that interpretation a bit). I also loved her face-off with Green Arrow--especially the line about how hard it is to get blood out of leather. But I think her best scene was the final one with Clark, trying to convince him they're on the same side. "I want to trust you and I want to know why Lex didn't" was an awesome line--she really is so reminiscent of early-seasons Lex. Ironically, she's better at the facade of trustworthiness than Lex was, even in season 1, although she actually is a lot less trustworthy than he was back then.

--Kara: This was a great piece of closure for her storyline. I loved how heroically she was presented, staying in that hell hole deliberately to protect Earth. I was a little afraid they would leave her stuck in the Phantom Zone, since I knew the actress wasn't coming back; I'm glad they sent her off to search for Kandor instead.

One thing her reappearance reminded me of, though, was how much I miss Martha Kent. Because her scenes with Clark were great (more on that below), but even though I get that there is a family bond between them, that wasn't the family bond I was missing. (Especially since we got a hint that Martha still exists in the phony care package. I really hope they can get AOT to do at least one guest spot before the series ends!!!)

--Clark: I won't lie, I was a little mad at him for not telling Lois the truth when they ended up in the Phantom Zone. I certainly understand Clark wanting to protect his secret, and he's generally right that knowing his secret puts people in more danger--but since he didn't know how long he and Lois were going to be in the Phantom Zone, it seemed recklessly endangering Lois, to me, not to tell her exactly what he knew about the dangers she was facing.

However, he really won me back by his decision to stay in the Phantom Zone if that's what was needed to save her and prevent more Zoners from escaping. In fact, it seems clear his plan was to stay behind and send both Kara and Lois to safety, and while I knew the writers weren't going to let it happen, it still broke my heart a little when that's what he seemed to be offering. CLARK!! And then offering to go to Kandor with Kara! *Sniffle* And then Kara pulled out the "you're always with me, close to my heart" line and I actually teared up a little.

--Lois: I was a little sorry that she bought it was all a hallucination. But I had to mention how hilarious it was that she thought they'd been abducted by aliens precisely because they *had* been abducted by aliens. Hee!!

--Oliver: Just had to mention that I thought it was hilarious when he was reluctant to follow Chloe's plan until he found it involved stealing from Mercy. Hee!!


Things that made me go hmm

--When I saw Chloe completely (apparently) under her own control this week, I thought, wow, it was really Chloe and not Brainiac that killed that guy last week. But then she's clearly become a human computer in the way she manipulated the crystal, so once again I was unsure. I honestly think it would be very interesting territory if the show actually showed Chloe was *not* under the influence of Brainiac when she made the choice to kill for Clark, but I also think there's no way they're actually going to go that route with a popular character, just like they only let Lana go so dark before pulling her back.

But I'm glad more people are at least noticing that she is, um, behaving in non-human ways!

Also, I really loved her face-off with Tess. Especially Tess calling her on the lame "bird" lie, and then Chloe responding to her "blind loyalty" accusation with "That means a lot coming from a protege of Lex Luthor."

--So Grant is the (non-human) child of Zod and Feora? I'm suspecting that is not canon for CHIRT (the Character He Is Rumored To be, and I'm going to keep calling him that since there are several unspoiled people who I know read my reviews--no spoilers in the comments, please). If you are having spoilery discussion of this over in your own review, though, please let me know. I could of course just go to the wikipedia article on CHIRT, which is how I get 90% of my DC canon info, but right now I'm going to watch Supernatural instead.